Hongbin Li: How the Gaokao Shapes China
The U.S.-based academic discusses why China’s college entrance exam system retains popular support despite its hardships, and how the gaokao’s influence can spread overseas.
No Country for a Woman
Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite the Communist Party’s slogans about women’s liberation. Two novels by the Wuhan writer Fang...
Sex Sells
A book on prostitution in China asks sex workers how they see the industry, the state and themselves.
The Secret Life of Student Democracy
A scholar’s portrait of student volunteer groups in China is inspirational, but are they really planting the seeds of democratic change?
Barbara Demick on the One-Child Policy and International Adoption
The foreign correspondent talks about her new book on child trafficking and the adoption market in China, and the story of twin girls separated at...
How China’s Adoption Market Led to Child Trafficking
In 1991 China allowed foreigners to adopt its children, supposedly abandoned by parents because of the one-child policy. But some had been taken or trafficked...
What China’s Reading: Uncertain Times
China’s economy is unsteady, its publishing industry facing hard times — yet interesting books continue to come out. Here are five of them, from psychotherapy...
Dancing in Chains
Squeezed by both political and commercial pressures, China’s book publishers face an existential crisis. How can the industry survive, let alone publish anything interesting?
Yan Geling: Crossing the Red Line
The acclaimed novelist and screenwriter built an audience in China for her powerful historical narratives. Then, somewhere, she crossed a line. What is it like...
The Nanny’s Tale
A migrant worker leaves her own child behind to survive, becoming a nanny in Beijing. When she hears of a literary community for migrants, she...
Emily Feng on Identity in Xi Jinping’s China
The award-winning NPR correspondent talks about her new book, the challenges of reporting in China, and what it means to be Chinese when the state...
The Thief Who Became a Celebrity
When Zhou Liqi went viral for stealing scooters to protest lack of opportunity, he sparked a debate between the popular movement of “lying flat” and...